Golden Moon Tea

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #25
whoops, WAY oversteeped this. Got distracted looking through google scholar search results and 15 minutes later…oh yeah, tea! (I get very single-minded)

The result is a black tea that smells and tastes very faintly of vanilla. The leaves smelled of creamy vanilla, so it’s kind of weird to go from that to this. It’s a shame because I think the quality of the vanilla here is quite nice, so I wouldn’t mind if it were just a bit more assertive.

It’s interesting to compare this with the vanilla mint, although at this point, all I have to go on is a vague memory and whatever my tasting note says. In any case, the vanilla and mint were so nicely balanced and worked with the black and green teas really well. What’s going on here is that the vanilla seems to be trying to balance itself with another flavor that is…not there.

As I get nearer to the bottom of my second cup, the vanilla seems to become more prominent. And the tea gets sweeter too, which makes me wonder if I’m not getting residual white chocolate from last night’s vanilla berry truffle.

Of course, this could all be the result of oversteeping and all of my problems will disappear with the next steeping which I will (hopefully) pay attention to. But for now, I give this an “eh,” which is like a “meh” but slightly more positive.

Remember how I didn’t want to mess with this one? I changed my mind :P I had a cup of it straight this morning, then decided to add some of Rishi’s Pe-erh Vanilla Mint; it’s usually too minty for my taste, so the extra vanilla and black tea flavor worked very well! I’ll be making this blend again, for sure.

With the pu-erh in there, it’s been re-steeping well all day, especially with the occasional extra 1/4 tsp of leaves.

So, I was in Cardullo’s last night, buying another Kusmi sampler (for a friend!), and thinking of maybe getting a little tin of Paris for myself, when I saw that they had a sale shelf. With Golden Moon on it O_O. With, specifically, several of my favorite GM teas at ~40% off.

I ended up getting this one, White Persion Melon, and Coconut Pouchong. I made myself a batch of the Melon to drink iced today…. then left it in the fridge this morning :( But, at least remembered to bring this tin in.

I like this as a vanilla tea – it’s not a big, strong vanilla flavor, but it’s not weak either. Just light, and smooth, and fruity – best drunk plain, I think, or maybe with a dot of honey. I’ll try it with some milk later to be sure, but it’s so smooth and sweet on its own, I don’t think it would hold up well. There’s just this lovely sweet, aromatic aftertaste that I don’t want to mess with!

This is a quality vanilla tea. It reminds me a lot of Mighty Leaf’s Vanilla Bean, which pretty much set the standard for true vanilla black tea for me. It does have little bits of vanilla beans, and the round almost fruity tropical aroma that goes with them. Very well flavored, definitely smooth enough to drink plain, and just barely strong enough to take milk. I got two solid infusions out of this, and would happily buy a tin if I needed to replenish my vanilla tea stock.

Came in with grease on my hands from removing a spline on my mower, added some sugar this time…better.

I got this one in the mail yesterday and boy was I excited. It may grow on me, but right now not very impressed. It smells and tastes like pipe tobacco. I could see however that adding some sugar or perhaps using it as a base for a blend may be better.

It’s been a LONG week. I thought I would reward myself with something and about the time I was trying to figure out what my reward would be my son comes in and request chai. I have only made some chai’s using coffeemate chai creamer and I’m out right now so I dug into my GM sampler and pulled this one out.

I made it according to Takgoti’s chai recipe and it turned out wonderful and luckily it made enough to give him a huge mug and me a dainty cup. I am not usually really crazy over chai’s but I might have to purchase this one for those days when I need a chai. See picture here http://www.flickr.com/photos/48612840@N07/4546576793/

I do not have really any other chai’s besides one or two experiences to compare this one to but it was yummy so it’s going to get a high rating.

Thanks Takgoti for the recipe! :)

This tea looks very light with an appealing toasty aroma. I think I’m detecting “toastiness” a lot in my teas, nowadays. Maybe I’m just reacting to the warmness of the water? But in any case, this tea does, initially, seem very “toasty” to me. I think toasty is tasty, so that’s good. On first sip, I taste buttery gardenias….yummy! On subsequent sips, I’m reminded of GM’s Coconut Pouchong sans coconut. This must be the “oolong” aspect. It’s almost like roasted green tea mixed with steamed banana leaves and white flowers. The aftertaste is very orchid-like.

This is good but if I were to rate the GM oolongs (on personal preference), it would definitely be Coconut Pouchong first, Sugar Caramel Oolong second and this third.

I put this in with some River Shannon for cold brewed iced tea. It made it extra special and delicious. It added a very sweet, honeyed note. Excellent.

Sipdown no. 55 for the year 2014. A sample; another in the “not sure, try again” category after my massive Golden Moon order.

I see in my previous note that I wanted to try this one next to the Moroccan Mint to see how they compared. Which probably explains why I also have a sample of the Moroccan Mint.

I’m going to steep them right after each other and taste them side by side. I’m going to try this one at 185 for 3 minutes since my previous note indicated that hotter water worked better.

I should caution you that sniffing the sample packet is risky because it’s amazingly reminiscent of Andes mints, or Girl Scout thin mint cookies. I see I said that in my original note as well, so I’m not crazy. See, there’s that chocolate/vanilla continuum thing again! There’s really no reason this should smell like chocolate mint since it’s vanilla mint. But that’s what I smell—chocolate mint!

I’m having a very similar experience this time around compared with what I documented in my first note. One thing I’ll add to the steeped aroma—there’s a spicy note I didn’t mention the first time, kind of a peppery kick to the aroma.

The flavor is a soft mint, with a creaminess to it from the vanilla. Its a somewhat heartier, full bodied flavor overall than the Moroccan Mint, because of the addition of black tea and vanilla. But standing on its own, this is a lighter, medium bodied tea.

It’s quite nice and I’d drink it again. Would I buy a full size tin? Hard to say. Probably not now as I have too many other mints and if I were to feel like mint I’d likely go for the straight mint of Tazo Refresh, the green mint of Samovar Moorish mint, or perhaps one of my various chocolate mint combos.

And gee, I’d tag the flavors, but there’s no mint among them?

Golden Moon sample No. 10 of 31. Hard to believe I’m a third of the way through. What a fun ride this is. I’m glad I have 2/3 left to look forward to.

This one is making my pulse rate go up and my palms sweat a bit because it’s another green/black blend. My last GM green/black didn’t go so well and I was disappointed because for those who got the steeping right it seemed to be enjoyable. I think I steeped too hot last time, so this time I’m lowering the temperature. However, I’m still sweating a bit because now I fear I may be shortchanging the black part of the blend.

The dry blend is a mix of colors, shapes and textures that gives it a pleasing look. Bright green flecks of mint, dark brown spears of black tea, little dark green gunpowder spheres, and some brown shapes that are likely the vanilla bean pieces, though they are smaller and not as easily identifiable as in other vanilla flavored teas I have tried. The mint fragrance is similar to that of the Moroccan Mint. It’s those Girl Scout thin mints again! But it’s creamy in a way it wasn’t before, with the addition of the vanilla fragrance. I’m thinking mint ice cream now. There’s also a rich, slightly toasty, slightly malty undertone.

I’m going to try to hit 180 (tricky business with the Zo as it is between settings), and steep for 3 minutes. And dang, I missed it on the way down and on the way up as well. Oh well. I’ll use 175.

A clear, light amber infusion. The vanilla and the mint are evident in the aroma and about equally balanced, though the mint predominates slightly. There’s an intermittent cocoa note and a somewhat toasty green one as well.

Ah. This is better than my last green/black attempt. There is no harsh sensation in the back of my throat. I do notice the back of my throat while drinking this which is unusual and which is no doubt resulting from the power of suggestion. I wish I didn’t notice it, but I can’t be sure it’s the tea causing me to. The tea is minty tasting with a softness to it that must be the effect of the vanilla. There is also a sweet, “dark green” flavor from the gunpowder that is most evident in the finish. The black tea may be contributing to the sweetness as well.

Second steep with slightly hotter water, about F183 degrees. This is definitely more in the ballpark of the correct steeping temperature for this. The flavor is richer all around at this temperature, and the black tea is speaking up and contributing some maltiness in a way it wasn’t at 175.

I like this well enough, but I am not sure I’d need both this and the Moroccan Mint in my cabinet at the same time or whether they are similar enough that one would do. I’d really like to try them side by side to see.

At my age one should not stay up all night. Yep my pulling all nighter days are long over on Wednesday night (technically Thursday morning) I woke up to the saddest dog crying ever and I had to sit up with him all night or he would start up crying again. So imagine this its about 3:00 am and me and my neapolitan mastiff (about 200lb) dog are sitting on my bedroom floor (well he was laying) with his head in my lap and he is in a weird miserable position I’ve never seen him in sorta tangled looking. He’s crying and I’m crying I mean he is my BEST FRIEND EVER and I can’t stand to see him in misery. I sit there and comfort him thinking about when the vet my open and if he will make it until then and lo and behold he is pulling through (Thank you God).

Anyway on to the tasting note I just had to let you all know where I’ve been the past couple days and what I’ve been going through if you’ve ever loved an animal you completely understand I’m sure. On to this tasting note I needed something soft and comforting and I thought why not go with this white licorice so here we sit me and the white licorice tea and all I can smell in the dry leaf is star anise which doesn’t remind me of licorice but pizza yes I said pizza when I was in H.S. I would rush home from school to eat and most times the easiest thing would be to throw a totino’s party pizza in the oven and wait well the sausage pizza had star anise so I’m thinking that’s why I think of pizza.

While I’m not tasting much of the white tea I do somehow know it’s there but mostly I’m getting the pizza star anise flavor and I don’t know that I like that in my tea. No I do know I DO NOT like that pizza spice in my tea. If you like star anise you probably would enjoy this tea unfortunately I do not.

P.S. Thank you to all of you who have been sending me your heartfelt wishes for Massimo I appreciate you all.

Wowsa. Orange Pledge dusting spray. That’s all I could smell when I cut open the sample bag and the bag was nowhere near my face. I just couldn’t believe that smell was coming from that tiny bag. So I did a tentative sniff and it was confirmed: Orange Pledge dusting spray. ::shudders::

I really hadn’t thought much of this sample until I read Ewa’s review and my curiosity was piqued. I mean, perhaps I could balance out that review since I’ve only smelled Earl Grey whilst preparing its bagged version for others. I am now trusting Ewa’s tastes in all things Earl Grey.

I woke up a little stuffy, but that smell did assault my sinuses into waking up a bit more. But I think that my stuffiness adds to the difficulty of my reviewing this one. It’s black tea-ish with fake orange smell, and something else that I couldn’t identify until I reread Ewa’s note: papery lavendar. Bizarre, but true. I’m on my second steep (yes, I’m sadistic) and I’m getting a teeny-tiny bit of sweetness – but lordy, my throat is starting to feel really rough. It’s like the astringency is going from the back of my mouth all the way down my neck. You know that unpleasant tingly feeling the underneath of your tongue gets that happens right before you blow chunks? Well, I’m actually getting that specific sensation, but without the fear of the usual followthrough. I’m not going to finish this second steep. Ick. GA

Sipdown no. 52 of 2017 (no. 333 total).

Continuing the march through my chai stash.

I had liked it hot, but realistically speaking it wasn’t going to make my short list of chais to make hot because it lacked black pepper and because the earthiness of the pu-erh made the milk taste a bit weird and dirty to me.

But it made a surprisingly smooth and satisfying cold brew. Now if it would only work its magic on my gut. I think I have come down with some sort of gut problem — most likely IBS but I fear lactose intolerance, Celiac, Crohn’s disease, or who knows what. Not pleasant.

Golden Moon sample No. 9 of 31. I’d picked this out after the Orchid Temple but had to wait until today, when I have stove access during caffeine-safe hours, to put it through its paces.

I used the stovetop method LENA described here: http://steepster.com/discuss/25-chai

I made a slight modification, which is that I didn’t boil five minutes after adding the milk. I just brought it to a boil, removed from heat, covered and steeped for 10 minutes, a la the instructions on the Samovar Masala Chai sample. I did this because my stove must run pretty hot. The water boiled completely away before 10 minutes were up, and fortunately I walked into the kitchen in time to save the project from disaster. So I think my personal recipe is going to have to be “boil 10 minutes or until water evaporates.” Either that or try more of a simmer than a boil.

Anyway about this tea. I calculated that I had enough in the sample for 3/4 of a cup of chai, so I used 3/4 tbsp sweetener, 3/4 cup water and 3/4 cup 1% milk.

When the sample came out of the mylar vest, it smelled deliciously spicy. Cinnamon and cardomom. Just the slightest, earthy pu erh scent. This changed during boiling. The pu erh came out in the aroma. This pu erh smell didn’t strike me as leathery so much as mossy, wet tree bark or maybe leafy soil. It kicked in shortly after the boiling started, then just as quickly resolved and retreated, and back came the spices as the primary aroma.

The chai has a dark aroma owing to the pu erh. It’s gingerbready, but also vaguely chocolatey.

The taste is interesting. It’s chewy, but because of the pu erh it strikes me as a little rough around the edges. Not in a bad way, mind you. It makes this a less sweet, somewhat earthy drink, but with chai’s spicy creaminess. There’s depth and complexity to the flavor — I’m getting some coffee notes and some chocolate notes. I could see being in the mood for this on a cold rainy day. It doesn’t replace my top choice, but it’s a nice sometimes alternative.

I wonder how it would taste using the Samovar method of adding a spoon of black tea to it? Or would it be more appropriate to add a spoon of loose pu erh?

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #20 (…My count must be off, because I don’t have enough teas left to only be at 20…oh well!)
Edit: Ah, there’s the problem! two 17s…and two 8s and 7s and 6s…yeah I fail at counting.
Let’s try that again: Golden Moon Sampler Tea #24

It’s a little silly to me that I’m drinking the Jasmine Tea AFTER the Jasmine Pearls and the Vanilla Jasmine. Shouldn’t I have started with that? Formed a baseline or something? Clearly fate does not think so. Actually, fate probably thinks its funny. That’s the problem with consigning yourself to fate. You have to put up with its sense of humor.

So this tea was definitely hurt by going last in the group of jasminey things in the sampler. It basically tastes meh. I mean, not BAD or anything. I like jasmine tea and I like this, but it just doesn’t stand out to me at all. I think both the vanilla jasmine and the jasmine pearls have more character.

I’m afraid that I may have prepared this horribly wrong. My sample was the tiniest sample I’ve ever seen. I don’t have a scale, so try to picture the length and width of 4 toothpicks laying together. That is how much tea my sample contained. I’m really disappointed; this only made half a mug of tea, but I’m still afraid that this is going to be really diluted.

Ooh, I taste the orange blossoms. Most people here had a little difficulty tasting them, but for me, that’s the first thing that hits me right away. This is a nice, light woody and nutty oolong. The orange blossoms give it dimension and the perfect hint of sweetness. I’m still afraid that I’m not getting the full experience because of how tiny my sample was, but this doesn’t taste bad. I’m assuming that a more concentrated cup would only be better.

::contented sigh::

Ah, this tea is one of the few that I’m keeping on hand at work. It’s so forgiving with the inaccurate temps and oversteeping that tend to happen. Just a great basic tea that keeps me going. NE

So my poor attempt at budgeting just flew out the window – 3 different tea companies just got orders from me in the past 12 hours. And a fourth is probably coming since their coupon is only good through April. I must take a vow to not purchase any tea or teaware in May. This is redonkulous.

Okay, onto the tea! And we have a frontrunner on the Black Tea I will most likely purchase from GM. Yup, I shall add this to my shopping list so that it can join the Nepalese Afternoon Tea. I can’t really tell you much about this tea except that it’s smooth, complex, and what I think an ideal black tea with oomph should taste like – especially on the 2nd infusion. That’s where the sweet kicks in – not so much while it’s hot, but as it cools it gets sweeter and sweeter. Naturally all I can think of is how amazing this would be as an iced tea. NE

I have been looking forward to trying this one, as it gets such rave reviews. I don’t think I’ve had particularly many flavored oolongs, either. My first thought was indeed that it tastes like a coconut cookie- the oolong lends the tea a slight hint of ‘something baked’, almost a toasty taste. The coconut is really mild, and thankfully not at all greasy (I’ve seen coconut teas that drip with coconut oil). It’s a really pleasant brew to have mid-morning, and unique as far as flavored teas go. I can imagine this so deliciously paired with tea biscuits. I may have to get my hands on more of this, or- to tide me over, I might just have to re-steep the sample Kristin sent me.

Just breaking open my sampler of 50 teas from Golden Moon, and this one literally jumped out at me. Opening it up was heaven – warm, toasty coconut smell, with a little bit of something resembling marzipan. Infusing it was interesting! The intense smell of the coconut dissipated a little, and the ‘greeniness’ of the leaves started to creep in, in a nondescript, mellow kind of way. I let it steep for 3 minutes, I think next time I’d pull it out at 2 instead. The first taste that I get is definitely the green, but it blossoms out into that same warm, toasty coconut smell that I first experienced. Definitely not screamingly sweet, but delicately so. There’s a faint tang of bitterness, but I think that’s my fault for leaving it in a minute more than I had intended.

Sweetening this after tasting it first has a really interesting effect on the tea. Sweetness brings the toasty coconut to your palate first, which then washes into the green, and then back to the coconut it goes (killing a bit of the bitter tang that I had accidentally created, by the way). Definitely a solid tea, one I’d certainly try again! Much prefer this to Zhena’s Coconut Chai, but that’s a whole different animal, so I don’t think it’s necessarily fair to compare. Have to see what a second infusion might do to this!

It turned out to be an unintentionally Ceylon-ariffic day. I usually wouldn’t do a second black tea in the late afternoon, but I was having a mini-meltdown. I have my final paper due at midnight tomorrow for one of my Library Science classes and I thought that I’d misunderstood the basis of my 8 page paper. The entire basis. After a minute of shock I immediately thought “I need some tea with some oomph – the next 24 hours could be really long.” So I picked this out of the sample basket. As it steeped I took some deep breaths and thought things through. Long story short: from what I understand my basis is sound. I don’t need to get to my library early tomorrow and analyze 50 different books and then write like a fiend. Hallelujah! But I should probably get off the web and stop procrastinating ;)

But now to the tea! I was pleasantly surprised by this :) On the first steep it reminded me of Adagio’s Golden Monkey – not my favorite tea, but it’s got a kick that works for me. I really didn’t taste any sweetness. Then, oh second steep-o-joy! The sweetness came through and made it so yummy! It’s like the French Breakfast tea that I had this morning but more complex. Ah, ’tis all good.

I did try a third steep just for the heck of it. Yeah, not so much. This moves up the shortlist on teas I might purchase after I make my way through the sampler. NE

Golden Moon sample No. 8 of 31. I was glad that my random selection today was an oolong. I was in the mood for one. I can already tell I’m not likely to stop at one oolong today.

The dry leaves are very green, ranging from a dark forest color to a much lighter yellow green. Some stems are present. The leaves are tightly curled, almost in little balls. Their fragrance isn’t strong; they smell a little grassy, with a slight bit of toastiness (not nearly as as much as more oxidized oolongs often have). There’s a hint of a floral note, but it isn’t anywhere near as intense, or as beautiful, as that of the Life In Teacup An Xi Tie Guan Yin Grade II modern green style.

Liquor is pale yellow with a green tinge, very like that of many green teas. The aroma is unusual. It is floral, but… it unfortunately reminds me of the floral smell of some dishwashing liquids. It has a soapy undertone.

Thankfully, there is no soap in the taste. I do get a little bit of butter, a little bit of cream, and some floral taste on the first steep.

Second steep: 3:30 min. Color is a deeper yellow, aroma is still a little soapy, but it seems to be less now. Flavor has a more toasty, vegetal quality now. Not as heavy on the butter. There is a mild floral sweetness as well.

Third steep: 4 min. Less toasty, more vegetal, about the same buttery, about the same floral.

Fourth steep: 4:30 min. Not toasty, less vegetal, more buttery, more floral.

Fifth steep: 5:00 min. Sigh. I’m not going to do a fifth steep. I’m just not liking this enough to do another one. :-(

On a positive note, I love how wet oolong leaves look. When they unfurl, they are quite dramatic looking. It’s the same effect as those little gelatin capsules kids drop in water, and as they dissolve animals made of sponge come out that are four or five times the size of the capsule. It makes steeping somewhat unpredictable, though, since you never know whether the leaves are going to outgrow the filter when you start. (Are those oolong leaves in your filter or are you just glad to see me?) These were no exception. Wet, they are grand, majestic things that have expanded to take up about four times as much room in the filter as when they started. Olive green, with interesting serrated edges.

In all, I’m unlikely to order this one. It doesn’t bowl me over. It doesn’t even show enough promise that I want to give it another chance. I don’t find the aroma appealing, it doesn’t do anything special for me in terms of mouth feel. And it isn’t as flavorful as others I’ve had, nor does it have the character of some I’m currently enamored of.

I’m a little sad about it as I was hoping to discover another favorite. C’est la vie.

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #23 (I think)
I am a bad person. Ever since I saw the entry about tea eggs in the cooking with tea thread, I have been wanting to make some. And lo and behold! I have five random eggs sitting in the fridge doing nothing. It is the PERFECT opportunity.

But wait! I am out of Lapsang Souchong! Except…for the Golden Moon sample! But it would be Wrong to use that without trying it! So, compromise! Brew up a smaller cup, try THAT, use the rest for tea eggs! Yay! Once again the day is saved by thinking about something for longer than 10 seconds.

Well, I’m not gonna have results on the tea eggs for a while, but I have mixed feelings about this stuff. At first, it seemed comparatively weaker in its smokiness than other LSes that I have tried. On the other hand, the aftertaste is VERY strongly smoky, so I’m wondering if it isn’t that sweet note that some of the other reviews mentioned making me THINK that the smokiness is weaker.

In sum. I don’t know. I’m not THAT big of a smoky tea aficionado, so I think I’ll just table the issue. Perhaps one day I will meet a Lapsang Souchong that I can’t live without, but apparently this isn’t it.